Monthly Archives: October 2015

Have you looked through all the help files and settings on your favorite Social Media Channels? Probably not, or if you did back when you signed up there were probably so many things it was a little mind boggling.

There are really great features that you may have overlooked or were going to check out but may have forgotten about entirely.

Check them out, see which of the 30+ I’ve listed you may have forgotten about or which ones have gone entirely unnoticed.

Forgotten Facebook Features

Save links for later reading

When looking at stories in your newsfeed, you’ll find options under the drop-down menu in the upper right corner. One of these is the “Save” option, which According to Facebook, is for links, places, music, books, movies, TV shows and events. Not included are photos or plain text updates.

“Save” also shows up on pages. Select “Save Link” from the drop-down button in the upper right of the story or save a Page, for later review, by selecting “Save” from the more (“…”) option on the top right corner next to Like, Share.

To Friend or Follow?

Here’s how it works: If the person has this feature turned on you’ll see a “Follow” button to click, along with an “Add Friend” option.

Following someone means you will see their posts in your news feed, just as you would if you were friends. What’s the difference? They don’t need to accept your friend request.

Simply go to your Facebook settings, and then turn on the follow feature in your profile. From the left menu, select Followers, and change the settings from “Friends” to “Everybody”. If you need further assistance, check out Facebooks Help page.

Post to Page Timeline

Did you know others can post to your page? By tagging your name in an update these posts show up in the sidebar on your page.

Be sure to watch what is being posted, you may find customer service opportunities, be able to engage with others when someone mentions you and don’t forget to watch for spam. Who knows, you may find something you want to re-share.

Sidebar Element Order

You can rearrange the order of the sidebar elements on your page. The top spots are reserved for People and About, but other sections can be dragged and dropped into any order you choose.

The pencil icon will appear when you hover over any section in the menu.

Advanced stats for any post

Have you ever noticed the “# people reached” link at the bottom of your posts?

Have you ever clicked on it?

These insights show you all sorts of cool stats like the breakdown of likes, comments, and shares.

Other forgotten useful features

Did you know you have a Facebook eMail Address? You can email me at [email protected], and the message will come straight to my regular eMail account. Your Facebook email is your username on Facebook, plus @facebook.com.

Download a copy of your Facebook data! From your settings page, you can click the “Download a copy” link at the bottom.

Did you know you can attach a file to a Facebook Message? When you’ve got an open message window open, click on the gear icon and choose the “Add Files…” option.

Surprise Messages from Others. When clicking your message page, you’ll see the default view of your latest inbox view. Notice on the top menu “Inbox” and “Other” if there is a number beside it you have unread messages from someone on Facebook.

Do you want a specific message to appear at the top of your Business Page timeline? You can Pin a post to the top. Click the drop down arrow in the top, right corner of any of your page posts, and choose “Pin to Top.”

Forgotten Twitter Features

Creating collections via Tweetdeck

Collections are made possible using Twitter’s own Tweetdeck, a free management dashboard tool. You can create custom timelines, containing what you want to see, for multiple accounts.

Who’s in this photo?

When you add a new photo to a tweet, you can tag up to 10 people who are in the photo — and these tags won’t count against your 140 characters.

Here’s where the tagging option appears on a desktop. The feature is also on mobile.

Photo Collages and Twitter Images

You can include up to 4 images when composing a tweet. Simply click on the “Media” link to make a photo collage.

Here is a quick example of what a collage will look like:

Twitter for Mobile

You can perform certain actions, like following a user or marking a friend’s update as a favorite, by using designated Twitter commands via SMS. There are various SMS options on Twitter should you want to read more.

Here are a few popular ones:

D [username] + message — sends that person a Direct Message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.

WHOIS [username] — retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter. Example whois jack or w jack, for short.

FOLLOW [username]: allows you to start following a specific user, as well as receive SMS notifications. Example: FOLLOW jerry or F jerry for short.

Mute Feature

Should you want to manage your Twitter stream you can mute them rather than unfollowing someone. This can be helpful if you want things a bit quieter while others are participating in chats or tweet bursts.

Access from any tweet, click on the “…” (more) drop-down and choose “Mute” from the list. You can “unmute” a person, at a later time, by visiting their profile.

Pin to Tweet to Top of Profile

You can pin any tweet to the top of your Twitter feed by selecting “Pin to your profile page” from the “…” (more) link under the tweet.

Forgotten Google+ Features

Posting a G+ Poll

You can run a poll from a Google+ post. Click on the “Poll” button then ask your question in the body of the post, set multiple answers choices and add an optional photo.

Once published here is what your poll will look like.

Create an Empty Circle to save posts for future reference

Create a circle without anyone in it. This works great as a bookmarking tool or swipe file. Share posts to this empty circle then easily reference them later. All posts are added to your profile page and private, viewable only by you.

This also works great for your favorite services like Evernote or Pocket or email service. When you include your share email in the circle content saved will be automatically forwarded to you.

Linking a slideshow to your profile photo

You can control what appears when someone clicks on your profile photo. In the Photos menu, look for the Profile Photos collection, then add, edit, and arrange the photos.

Did you know you can also set a GIF as your profile or cover photo?

Forgotten Pinterest Features

Set up a secret board

Ideal for individuals planning vacations, dream weddings and surprise parties. A secret board is also great for seeding a new board before publishing for marketing purposes.

To create a secret board, click to create a new board and select secret in the options window.

Rearrange the order of your boards

You can arrange the order of your boards to your preference. Simply click and drag your boards into the order you’d like when on your profile page.

Note: The order of individual pins within a board cannot be changed.

See what has been pinned from your website (or others)

If you are interested in seeing what has been shared from your website or another website, you can type the following URL and add your domain name.

Type in: http://www.pinterest.com/source/domainname.com/.

Change the “domainname.com” to your blog’s address (or the blog address of a site you want to check).

Customize your cover images

Want your board to have a specific cover image? Click the “Edit” button at the bottom of the board then select “Change” cover. Scroll through the images and select the one you want to appear. You can even move the image around to get the best look on your board.

Collaborate with friends

When you click the Edit button at the bottom of your board, you’ll have the option to set others up as collaborators. Type in a name or email address and an email invitation will be sent. Anyone you set can then add pins directly to your group board.

Forgotten Instagram Features

Where to view Instagram photos online

You can view any user’s Instagram feed online at instagram.com/username. Also, you can see your home page feed by logging in at instagram.com.

Add a border to your image

In addition to Instagram filters, you can also add borders to your image. Via the app, choose the filter first, and then tap the filter again to reveal a box icon you can tap to add a border.

Instagram 3rd Party Helpers

How to create a collage

Have you noticed the creative collages other people post and wondered how they do that? Check out these apps which will help get your creative juices going.

See an image, photo or quote you want to repost?

Choose from your home stream or images you have favorited. Many apps have a paid version which will allow you to remove attribution overlays on the photos. Play nice and give attribution in the description using @username and hashtags where appropriate.

Bonus: LinkedIn Tips

Download a list of your connections

Download your contacts into a spreadsheet. Various formats, such as CSV are available. You’ll get a full list of your connections, including their name, current title, current company name, and email address.

Click on “Connections” on the top menu at LinkedIn, and then click the gear icon that appears in the top, right corner of your connections page. In the Advanced Settings panel select “Export LinkedIn Connections”.

Message someone you’re not connected with on LinkedIn

If you want to get in touch with someone on LinkedIn but you have yet to make the one-to-one connection, you can try this workaround. Look in their profile at the groups they belong to, and then join a common group.

Group members can message each other even without a direct connection. Locate the person in the group members section, and you’ll see an option to “Send message” in the box to the right of their photo.

Create a Relationship notes and reminders

Under each connected profile sits the option to add relationship notes — how you met, reminder notices, and other important context.

The reminder notices are a particularly helpful because you can set alerts for any contact. If you click the recurring option, you could set up a reminder to call or follow-up with the person on a weekly, monthly or custom basis. The relationship panel is private so only you see what you have set.

I’ve been around the web for many years and like many, Google has become my BFF. However, there’s always a few places I seem to end up again and again. I’ve discovered they not only publish great content, in the areas I’m interested in, but a lot of it. If you’re like me, you try to limit the time you spend going down rabbit holes looking for the next article that catches your attention. New #publishing platforms help put a lot of variety at your fingertips, it’s hard not to find things in multiple areas of interest.

So much to read and so little time to do it, I have several irons in the fire, and also wear several different hats when I’m looking for content. If you’re looking for some fresh ideas, check out the top 10 blogs & publishing sites I can’t live without! (in no specific order)

The Nectar Collective – is an online resource for bloggers and creative entrepreneurs. We offer a daily blog, design studio, and consulting services.

Social Media Examiner – the world’s largest online #social media magazine, Social Media Examiner® helps businesses discover how to best use social media, blogs and podcasts to connect with customers, drive traffic, generate awareness and increase sales.

Hub Spot – is the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform with 15,000 customers in more than 90 countries.

Mashable – the latest digital, social media, #business, tech, entertainment, lifestyle and world news the top resource for digital culture.

Fast Company – founded on a single premise: A global revolution was changing business, and business was changing the world.

The Lardok – (formerly The Geek Byte) publishes the latest technology news to keep you updated whats happening in the world. Personally I liked the original name better, but then I might be a little biased!

Social Media Today – a collaborative blog publishing great posts from the web’s best thinkers on social technology.

Medium – is a different kind of place on the internet. A place where the measure of success isn’t views, but viewpoints. Where the quality of the idea matters, not the author’s qualifications. A place where conversation pushes ideas forward and words still matter.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not really a writer to begin with. I have dabbled with the idea over the years, by starting at least a dozen different journals none of which have more than a few pages completed. I have a very hard time putting my feelings & thoughts on to a piece of paper. I mean, what if someone else finds it and reads it? How embarrassing would that be? Aside from the fact that what little I have written was all penned out of either love or depression; it seems that what makes me want to scribble something down are those highs and lows. I’m in-between most of the time, well you get the picture.

Not being accomplished in #journaling, I’ve learned that blogging has been no different. So… how does one become a blogger if you can’t or don’t like to write you ask? I started reading other blogs on the subjects I wanted to cover and quickly found that most of what I want to write about has already been covered by someone else and most likely in a much better style than I would have come up with anyway. At first I thought I’d figure out how to nicely curate the information into my own words and post on my blog. You know what? That takes a ton of time, that I really don’t have!

Photo by Pixabay

That’s where the sharing comes in, I asked myself why not just help others get more exposure and in turn provide my readers with a professionally written article that probably has nice graphics too! I decided to test the theory on my new Twitter account. I quickly discovered I could just share the original article and grow my own following at the same time; spending my time locating great articles and providing a service to my followers and my niche. one stop reading from a variety of sources. I wasn’t up for re-inventing the wheel anyway! It seems to be working, in a little over 2 months I’ve been able to organically grow my account to over 600+ users looking for a single place to find the content they want to see.

A GPS Doesn’t Work Without a Destination

My original goal was to build a following of people looking for #startup, #social media and #website design information and resources. To provide my readers and followers with the most up-to-date data on what it takes to start a new #small business, build an effective website and be found on social media, so they can wisely determine where to spend their time and money.

Photo by StockSnap

Whether it’s a small family business, a new #Mompreneur or a blog dying to be written my vision is to help those individuals find a place on-line that will give them a viable alternative to doing the tech stuff themselves, so they can focus on their main objective of getting their idea off the ground. I’m still in route to my final destination and have taken a few scenic detours, but I am having a blast along the way!

In My Own Words or The Final Journey

That doesn’t mean I’ve given up on trying to come up with content for my website and blog. It just means that I’ll be a bit more selective, and strive to publish the things I feel are most important to my endeavor and fit with the niche I am carving out for myself. I really enjoy doing the geek stuff, the creative and artistic stuff whenever I can, so I’ll stick primarily to the things, I think, I do best: create startup websites, design basic social media images and make cute whiteboard and explainer videos.